Sealed package



Nov. 16,1937. B, D BROWN 2,099,419

SEALED PACKAGE 7 Filed Aug. 1, 1933- INVENTOR- iarfl Bi own,

ATTORNEY Ban Patented Nov. 16 1937 V I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SEALED PACKAGE Banks D. Brown, Connellsville, Pa., assignor to Capstan Glass Company, Oonnellsvllle, Pa., a corporation of Delaware Application August 1, 1933, Serial No. 683,133

Claims. (01. 215-46 Thepresent invention pertains to the sealing particularly tumblers, without marring the apart, and more particularly to a sealed package pearance thereof. and the parts thereof. Another object of the invention is to provide an The number and quantity of food products and improved attachment for a container to remove 5 the like packed in glass containers increases yearside seal closures therefrom. 5

ly. The quality and condition of the products Another object is to'provide a sealed package when they reach the consumer depend, in alarge with an attachment for removing closures withmeasure, upon the security, of the seal. Spoilage out the use of tools or devices other than the of as much as one per cent of a packers product attachment on the container.

is a serious objection and,- for this reason, packers Other and further objects of the invention will 10 demand greater security in seals. The ultimate beobvious upon an understanding of the illusconsumers, mostly housewives, demand a packtrated embodiment about to be described or will age which can be opened readily. Seals formed be indicated in the appended claims, and various by compressing a gasket between the skirt of a advantages not referred to herein will occur to cap and the outer sidewall of a container, usually one skilled in the art upon employment of the 15 j by reforming the skirt of the cap, provide a very invention in practice.

secure seal. These seals are commonly called A preferred embodiment of the invention has side seals, and will seldom leak because of the been chosenforpurposes of illustration and detightness thereof and because there is little likescription and is shown in the accompanying draw- 2 lihood of irregularities in the side wall of the ing, forming a part of the specification, wherein; 2O container where the seal is made. The tighter Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a container, here the seal is made by reforming the skirt, the shown as a tumbler, embodying the invention; harder the package is to open, occasioning com- Fig. 2 is a fragmentary perspective view illusplaints on the part of the consumer. The contrating a modified form of protuberance;

sumer particularly objects'to the side seal because Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view illustrat- 25 a cap opener or other device is necessary for ing one form of closure cap applied to the conopening the package. Frequently, the housetainer; wife does not have an opener and if she does, Fig. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view illustratshe must know how to use it for opening the packing another form of closure cap applied to a conage. Various attempts'have been'made to overtamer; come thesedifficulties, but none have succeeded. Fig. 5 is afragmentary sectional view illustrat- Attempts to facilitate removal have usually reing the completed sealed package with the opensulted in impairing the security of the seal and ing attachment applied'thereto; attempts to improve the seal have usually in-- Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the opening at- 3 creased the difficulty of removing the cap, 7 tachment apart from the package;

The present invention aims 'toovercome these Fig. 7 is a perspective view of another form of difficulties by facilitating and simplifying the opening attachment; and removal of the caps, regardless of the tightness of Fig. 8 is a modified construction illustrating a the seal, thus satisfying both the consumer and protuberance for attaching a bail thereto.

40 the packer. The invention also contemplates an efe r n a a t the drawing illustrating 4' improved tumbler which facilitates removal of a the preferred embodiment of the invention. there closure cap without impairing its subsequent use is shown a container l, a Closure p 2 Sealed as a drinking tumbler. to the container, and an attachment 4 for re- An object of the invention is to facilitate reov g e Closure p from the containeremoval of the caps from glass containers, tails of these elements will now be described in 45 Another object of the invention is to facilitate t e Ord r amedthe'removal of closure caps, particularly side, seal The Container l 18 here illustrated as a las closures, without impairing the security of th tumbler, although it will be understood that the sea], I r I I invention is applicable to other types of contain- Another object of the invention is to provide an m. Th tu b ay e Of the ua S pe, but 50 improved container adapted to facilitate the re-" is preferably provided with a bevelled portion 5 moval of the caps therefrom without marring its adjacent the upper part of the rim, to facilitate appearance or impairing its utilityfor reuse. the removal of the closure, and a substantially Another object of the invention is to provide cylindrical sealing surface 6 directly below the g a cap removing attachment for glasscontainers bevelled surface, to which the cap may be sealed.

one of them substantially perpendicular to the side wall of the container is to minimize the tendency for the knife or other prying tool to be forced off when the corner is used as a fulcrum for prying the cap off. The tapered outerwall of l the protuberance strengthens the protuberance and adds to the appearance of the container. Products packed in tumblers ordinarily are quite popular because the housewife in .many 7 instances, uses the tumbler as a drinking glass or for other purposes. A ledge extendin'g completely around the tumbler impairs'its use as a:

drinking glass but a small protuberance, -as illustrated, has been found not to beobjectionable. The taper 9, in addition to strengthening the construction, also permits of the molding of a legend such as a number, here shown as 53,-to indicate the particular packers product. Such a legend or trade-mark is conspicuous and can be made with the usual block molds, commonly used'for tumblers. The upper surface 8 of the protuberance may be cross-hatched or'roughened, as shown at H, (Fig. 2) to facilitate the application of a pry-off tool for removing the closure cap. This surface may also be recessed, as'shown at I2, to facilitate the attachment of an opener, as described hereinafter. 7

Various types of closure caps maybe utilized in the present invention. Two types are shownherein for illustrative purposes, in Figs. 3 and 4. In Fig. .3, the closure cap 2 comprises a cover portion I4 and a depending skirt I5 having a bead E 6 adapted to receive and retain a gasket'l'l. The bead iii of the closure cap preferably is reformed by suitable chucks or spinning rollersv adapted to compress the gasket tightly against the sealing surface 6 below the bevelled surface 5 and slightly above the upper surface 8'of the protuberance 1.

In Fig. 4, a closure 2 is shown with a: cover portion! 1a and 2. depending skirt l5a,.with the lower edge turned inwardly to support the gasket Ila. The central portion of the skirt may be. grooved inwardly, as shown at l8, to compress the gasket. This type of closure cap is adapted to be pressed on the container, the groove 18 of the skirt being sufliciently small to compress the gasket against the container to form a seal. The bottom of the skirt is spaced slightly from the upper surface 8 of the protuberance.

If the packages are sold as illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4, without the attachment 4 illustrated in Fig. 5, the housewife merely has to insert a knife or a coin between the upper surface 8 of the protuberance I at the bottom of the cap to pry the cap off the container. It is contemplated herein that a substantial proportion of the packages will be sold without the cap openers 4, since the latter increase, to a small extent, the 'cost of the package and many packers maydesire to forego the advantages of the attached opener to economize in the cost of the package.

The preferred form of cap opener is illustrated age in Fig. 6. The cap opener preferably comprises a handle part [9, the lower end of which may be provided with portions bent into a plane substantially perpendicular to the plane of the handle at 20 to facilitate oscillating the handle along the wall of the container for prying off the closure cap. Preferably, the portions 20 are so shaped that it is difficult to pull the opener away fromthe tumbler, but easy to move it sidewise. In this manner, correct opening of the package is insured without instructions. If desired, suitable arrows (Fig. 1) may be formed in the side wall of the container to indicate the direction in which the opener should be moved. The other end of the opener is preferably offset at 2! to tuberance of the tumbler and to engage the lower edge of the closure cap. The extreme end of the opener is bent downwardly at 22 to nest in the recess I 2 of the protuberance.

In Fig. 7, another form of opener is shown having'a substantially crescent shaped depending portion 22 adjacent to the fulcrum: part 2!, adapted to fit into the recess l2 of the protuberance. The ends of the portion 22 project upwardly at 23 to provide prongs for engaging the gasket 1 i of the closure cap. If desired, the prongs may be sharpened slightly sothat they are adapted to pierce the gasket to'break the vacuum in the package.

In assembling and sealing the package, the

tumbler is first filled with the product to be sealed and the attachment 4 may be secured to the protuberance 1, either before or after the product is placed in the container. Thereafter, the tumbler, with the opener on it, is placed in a sealing machine, which may be a vacuum sealing machine adapted to remove air from the package and to seal the tumbler to the container by reforming the skirt of the cap, as shown in Fig. 3, or by pressing the cap on the container, as shown in Fig. 4 In either case, the bottom of the skirt of the cap is preferably sufficiently near the upper surface of the protuberance to prevent loss of the opener during shipment and, if desired, to prevent re-' moval of the opener without removal of the cap.

In opening the package, the handle of the opener I9 is oscillated in either direction along the surface of the container by pressure on the fiat portions 20. The portions 20 are preferably pressed together,- as shown in Fig. 7, to make it difficult for one to pull the lower end of the opener outwardly, this not being the correct way to operate it. The portion 2|, by reason of the oscillation, is forced upwardly against the cap to pry it off thecontainer. The sharp projections 23 (Fig; 7) formed at the end of the opener for piercing the gasket, break the vacuum and decrease-the amount of effort required to remove the cap. The bevelled portion 5 of the container further facilitates removal of the cap, since it minimizes the stretching of the cap necessary to clear the rim thereof. In this way, the cap can be readily removed Without deforming it materially and can be pressed on the container thereafter to provide substantially a hermetic seal during the consumption of the contents. 1

In Fig. 8, a protuberance is shown in which a recess 24 is provided at the lower part thereof for the reception of a bail 25. It will be understood that where it is desired to use the bail, at least two protuberances will be required at diametric points of the tumbler. The bail may be used with or without the opener.

It will be seen that the present invention provides a tumbler having substantially all of the reuse values of the ordinary tumbler and also having an attachment which does not mar the appearance of the tumbler and which facilitates the removal of the cap therefrom. The cap opener, to minimize cost, is preferably formed of suitable sheet metal and is adapted to be attached to the protuberance in a simple and effective manner. The closure cap may be sealed on the container without material interference with either the protuberance or the cap opener and, when sealed on the container, automatically prevents the cap opener from being removed from the recess 12 by accident and retains the cap opener in proper position for removal of the cap. The consumer merely oscillates the opener, whereby the vacuum is broken and the cap is pried off. The seals may be formed as tight as desired, without complicating the removal of the cap. The tumbler may be used with the ordinary types of closure caps, with or without the opener attachment, thereby increasing its sales possibilities. The cost of the tumbler is not increased since it may be made on block molds, as tumblers are ordinarily made. In addition, the packers trade-mark may be conspicuously placed on the protuberance without extra cost.

As various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of parts herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention and without sacrificing its advantages, it is to be understood that all matter herein is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. As an article of manufacture, an opener comprising a handle part made of fiat material, portions at one end of the handle part being bent at substantially right angles to the plane of the handle, the other end of the handle part being offset to form a fulcrum part, a portion bent downwardly from the plane of the fulcrum part and in the direction of the handle, and upwardly extending prong-shaped portions at the ends of the downwardly depending part for engaging and piercing a gasket within a closure cap sealed to a glass container, said prong-shaped portions being adapted to vent the package and thereafter remove the closure from the container.

2. A sealed package comprising in combination, a tumbler having a sealing zone beneath the rim thereof and an integral protuberance on the side thereof, said protuberance provided with a substantially flat upper surface being slightly below the sealing zone and an arcuate recess extending downwardly. at said upper surface to provide a concave upward fulcrum portion for a cap removing tool, a closure cap having a gasket in the skirt thereof, said skirt being reformed to force said gasket against the sealing zone on the side wall of the tumbler to form a side seal thereon, the bottom of said skirt being spaced slightly from the upper surface of said protuberance, and

a cap removing memberhaving an arcuate portion seated in said recess in said protuberance for prying the cap from the tumbler.

3. A sealed package comprising in combination, a glass container having a bevelled rim to facilitate removal of a closure cap, a sealing zone beneath said rim and an integral protuberance,

' the upper surface of the protuberance being below said sealing zone of the container and having a bearing provided by a recess extending downwardly from the upper surface adapted to act as a fulcrum for a cap removing member, a closure cap forming a hermetic seal on the side wall of the container, and a cap removing member having a portion seated in said recess on said bottom adapted to engage and remove the closure cap.

4. A sealed package comprising in combination, a glass container having a sealing zone at the upper end thereof for receiving the skirt of a closure cap and having an integral radially outwardly extending circumferentially short projection spaced a slight distance below said sealing zone, said projection having a substantially horizontal upper surface with end corners substantially perpendicular to the side wall of the container to serve as a fulcrum for a pry-off tool and to minimize the tendency of the prying tool to be forced out of its operating position when a closure cap is being pried from the container, and an outer side surface tapered downwardly and inwardly to merge into the side wall of said container, the outer side surface being of substantial length and longer than the distance the upper surface projects outwardly, and a closure cap sealed on said sealing zone having the lower edge of the skirt thereof adjacent to said projection.

5. A sealed package comprising in combination, a glass container having a side wall sealing zone adjacent the upper end thereof adapted to fit within the skirt of a closure cap and having an integral radially outwardly extending circumferential projection spaced a slight distance below said sealing zone, said projection having a substantially horizontal upper surface with an end corner substantially perpendicular to the side wall of the container to serve as a fulcrum for a pryoff tool and to minimize the tendency of the prying tool to be forced out of its operating position when a closure cap is being pried from the container, and an outer side surface tapered downwardly and inwardly to merge into the side wall of said container, the outer side surface being of substantial length and longer than the distance the upper surface projects outwardly, and a closure cap having a sealing gasket in the skirt thereof, said skirt being reformed to compress said gasket between said sealing zone and the skirt of the cap to form a seal with the lower edge of the skirt of the cap: adjacent to the upper surface of said projection in sealed position.

BANKS D. BROWN. 

